Forum Activity for @bob

Hi Strumelia, I just posted a  you tube video of my piping. The tune is a favorite of mine- MacPherson's Lament.

Dana,

There are several books of Celtic music for the dulcimer.  Mark Nelson, Lorinda Jones, Neal Hellman, and Linda Brockinton all have good books out, and I'm sure others do as well.  You might also look specifically for music by Turlough O'Carolan, for a lot of those harp tunes work very well on dulcimer, and again, there are books dedicated to O'Carolan tunes arranged for the dulcimer.  Shelley Stevens has one out as does Linda Brockinton.

I have a student who is concentrating on Celtic tunes, so I am helping her work through Neal Hellman's book, Celtic Tunes and Slow Airs for Mountain Dulcimer .  The book used to come with a CD, though newer editions give you access to the music online.  The music is really good; for most tunes there is an instrumental version of the arrangement in the book and another version with the dulcimer strumming chords and Janet Herman singing.  Beautiful stuff.  If you use Neal's book, be forewarned that he uses a lot of hammer-ons and pull-offs. I tell my student to ignore all of that initially, to learn the melody first, and then slowly to add some of the hammers and pulls only when it makes sense to her.  The book has a nice mix of well-known tunes and others that are more esoteric.

On my website for River City Dulcimers I also have a "hidden" page of tab for Celtic tunes that are common in dulcimer circles.  Some of the tab is my own, some is found elsewhere on the web.  None is copyrighted.  Feel free to make use of it.  And if you want to work on tab that I wrote, I am happy to provide a video or audio demo. Just send me a note.

Happy picking!

Yep. I love celtic songs.

Give me a Blackest Crow, Will Ye No Come Back Again, Dark Island...

I play and pick and play these songs again and again, adding to them the harmony of Greensleeves and a few others. 

I need some more music. If you know the above songs, then you know what I love. Can you please recommend some other possibly little known celtic-y tunes that are haunting or lovely?

I'm happy to pay for tabs. I just need some fresh songs. Thank you, thank you!

I didn't....I will check it out-Thanks!

Hewalker- beautiful recorders!  BTW did you know we have a thread here in this forum specifically about recorders:
https://fotmd.com/forums/forum/adventures-with-other-instruments/6926/recorder

Bob, I wish you'd post a clip of you playing one of your pipes!

Soprano-Smallest (I own) is a German Wesner

Alto-Middle is an Alpine

Tenor-Largest (I own) is a Wesner   All three are wood and have wonderful tone quality!

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I play a type of bagpipes called the cauld-wind pipes;  Scottish Small Pipes (a set in "D" and one in "A"). Also Scottish Border Pipes. I need to get them out more often!

HeWalker, what brand are your 'serious' recorders?  Can you post a photo of them here?  

I have a whole playlist on my itunes of medieval and renaissance recorder music. It's so beautiful to listen to!  I stick with penny whistles because recorders are simply too much of a learning curve for me at this point... and I had a much easier time learning the PW.  But I do think recorders sound the most heavenly.  

I have a few Ocarinas....fun to play.....I sometimes take one sailing and play when there aren't any waves!!!!

I built a Mirleton once -- the adult version of a kazoo. Also ocarina.

After reading Bill's post regarding Pennywhistle-I was curious what other wind instruments does everyone play.

I grew up on the Clarinet, Alto Clarinet and Bass Clarinet,  Recently (last year) started playing the penny whistle but most recently I have acquired and started playing the serious recorders.   I own a soprano, an Alto and a Tenor.  The alto is my favorite (I have tiny hands and it fits)

Here is my collection of lower key Susato 'Kildare' polymer penny whistles.  I have them in C, Bb, A, and G.  The A and the G each have one key on the lowest hole to make it easier for those of us with smaller hands to reach that bottom hole.  I'm really enjoying the mellow sound of these lower whistles.  :)

Cool!  I just realized that since my local dulcimer group meets the fourth Saturday of every month, it will almost always be on Play Music on the Porch Day!  We're going to have to take our chairs outside and share with the neighborhood!

Hi all -

  Sorry for the delay in responding - work and fragile health of my father has been requiring my attention. Thanks again for all of the suggestions. I am going to the different options as time and budget allows. 

Ken, so many sounds comes from these lyre's of different countries.  I'm learning so much...thank you.  I LOVE learning the history of anything, especially musical instruments.  I'm sure you would play it differently as well.  One Lyre I saw on youtube was as tall as the woman playing it.  yep, only 5 or 6 strings.  aloha, irene

Looks beautiful Ken, would love to hear the sound it makes.

All of the Anglo-Saxon Lyres were all-wood.  No skin heads.  The construction is always "carved body" with a separate soundboard inlet into the body.  The hollow body extending part way up the arms.

I take back what I said about soundholes.  I was looking at info about the Trossingen Lyre -- the most complete archeological find and elaborately decorated.  I had forgotten that it had 8 or 10 small (1/8"?) soundholes spaced around the bridge position.  But this was apparently the only AS lyre found with soundholes.

VERY interesting.  This leaves much food for thought...and I've not even had breakfast!!  Thank you for showing the tuning key.  In the gravesites, were most of them all wood? or were some covered with a "skin" like some banjo's were?  I'd be very interested to hear the sound of these.  hummmmmmmmm. gonna look on youtube.  aloha, irene

Nope --  no sound holes. Almost none of those found in burial sites in England or Germany had sound holes.  

Here's a picture of the tuning key, based on the original found in the gravesite.  Unlike keys for autoharp pins, you apply the rotation in-line with the peg, pushing in as you turn.  I would think you could make a similar key for any wooden peg instrument.

I used Tung Oil as a finish for the Lyre.  I like it a lot more than urethane or other "varnishes".

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GREAT POST and I'm smiling while reading all of them.  When I lived in Hawaii so many years ago, I'd travel to the elementary schools by request and show and tell of the instruments I had.  One of the first times I held it up and asked the children if they knew what this was(my dulcimer) ...........one cute little Hawaiian guy said, "I think it's a squashed guitar".  One dulcimer that I rescued from a shop on the Big Island, it was written up in the DPN....I was told that this dulcimer was used as yard art and then taken to the dump.  I restored her, and have named her, "Lilly from the dump."  This last dulcimer that I've just finished #25....I did some different things to the lower sound hole...and used a viola floating bridge...my she's loud...sounds more like a banjo...so she's named SUSANNA.  I've been reading all day APPALACHIAN DULCIMER TRADITIONS by Ralph Lee Smith.  Totally enjoying reading by the fire while the high outside was 15....Thanks for mentioning this book on this site!!  Got it used on ebay.  aloha, irene

Ken, this really is a beautiful instrument.   AS I look at all the pictures again, I don't see a sound hole.  and interesting how you tell of the wrench that tunes the pegs.  I wish I could see a picture of that too.  When I first worked with Myrtle wood....looked like packing crate material...but putting on a varnish........wheeeeeeee. Maybe I'll get someone to send me some Myrtle wood.  You're and inspiration.  aloha, irene

Supposedly builders and their instruments start to look alike.

Oh no, wait.  That's dogs and their owners. 

Sadly most of my husband's banjos don't have much that burns.😎

Yeah.... good lookin' instrument; builder -- not so much

Very nice Ken!  I really like the pic of you proudly holding it.  :)

😎 Thanks for listening and your support Dusty!

Very cool, Ken. Nice job.

Patricia and Wayne are the coolest kids in school! 

ahhhhh, way cool. If you look on this photo, next to the banjo above it is a lyre.  And that is what I use it for as well. I just chord it and sing a song.  When I show my Lyre to friends, I'll say, "this is a Lyre, and I'm telling you the truth."  I know, bad joke, but I have fun with it.  aloha, irene

Really nice

Ken, you did it!  Fabulous job on that lyre.  (The pegs look good too)!

Hope to hear you play it sometime.

Nice work, Ken.

Ken

"The dulcimer sings a sweet song."

Thanks for your warm comments and we very much appreciate your ongoing support. :-)

Nice job Ken. :)

Irene -- of course I play it!  It's tuned "pentatonic+"  -- do, re, me, sol, la, do'.  The instrument is from the 8th century -- back when there really were no sing-and-play "songs.  There were chants - Church chants, chanted audio-books like the sagas, Beowulf, the Poetic Edda, etc.  The Lyre was used for dramatic flourishes in a story, as well as a mnemonic device so that the skald/bard could remember where -- in hundreds or thousands of verses -- he was at any given point in the tale.

Very cool. 

I loved working with Myrtle wood when we lived in Ashland, Oregon.  this is an interesting instrument.  Do you know how to play it?  aloha, irene

Just a followup to my previous "getting started with this Lyre" post.  The Myrtle wood turned out to have some fabulous 'tiger stripe' effect in it.  The Port Orford Cedar is a great wood for doing the kolrose decoration on.  I have it tuned D3, E3, F#3, A4, B4, C4 with acoustic guitar nylon 2nd & 3rd strings. 

John Knopf made the tuning pegs for me -- great job, and the tuning wrench he made to fit them, following the plans, works perfectly.

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